Two years ago Susan Strawn was on her way to work just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, when she spotted a white '65 Chevy truck for sale on the side of the road. A few days passed before she remembered to tell her husband, Adam, about the truck. Adam just so happened to be in the market for another '60-66 C-10. Whoa, back up the bus. Whose wife actually tells her husband about old trucks she sees for sale? To top it off, Susan was even excited about the old Chevy, and here's why.
Like many young men, when Adam was 15 he started looking for his first truck, but he was looking beyond the late-model yearnings of his peers to Chevy trucks that were on the lot when President kennedy cut off commerce and travel to Cuba. He found a rough '63 and had it on the road by the time he got his driver's license, and he and then best friend Susan used to bum around town in that old truck all through high school.
A decade later, Adam and Susan found themselves happily married with two sons, Braxton and Garret, and yes, they still have the '63, which awaits a hopeful restoration by one of the younger Strawn boys. Adam investigated the '65 and negotiated a deal with its owner, Mike Estes, who is responsible for the Chevy's clean condition. Mike had fixed up the truck over the previous three years and finally had it painted back to its stock white color and corresponding red accent. Adam knew a good truck when he saw one, and he also knew what he'd have to do to the '65 to make it just right.
Picking up where Mike left off, Adam and his friends kevin Combs and Dan Carpenter got to work cutting one coil out of the front springs and installing dropped spindles and disc brakes from CPP along with their power booster and master cylinder. In the rear it was a nobrainer to de-arch the leaf springs and add lowering blocks to finally bring the truck down to earth.